History of WIFF

By Elliott St. Aubin

The Windsor International Film Festival has become a staple in the Windsor Ontario community dedicated to creating a film geek’s dream year after year. For 18 festivals they have screened some of the best movies ever made, they have shown off many Oscar nominees and winners throughout the years and have even partnered with big streaming services like Netflix. 

“It’s just a very well-run event,” said City Councillor Renaldo Agostino. “Every year the festival gets bigger and better, as a result of that it has become one of the best film festivals in North America.” 

Agostino added he has worked together with WIFF for many years now to bring a great experience for the people of Windsor. 

But the question remains, how did they get to be so successful? 

How did WIFF start? 

This festival has been a part of Windsor for 18 years as of this upcoming festival. Every late October to early November they entertain and amaze the people of Windsor. WIFF is considered one of the biggest film festivals in North America. During the first festival all the way back in 2005 they featured 20 films over the course of two days. These movies brought in a crowd of 1,000 people. The main title they were presenting for their first year was called Water and was created by Deepa Mehta. The movie explored the lives of widows from India and is set in 1938. By the ninth festival in 2013 they presented 65 films and had 14,000 people in attendance. That year’s festival took place over the course of 6 days. That same year marked Vincent Georgie’s first year as executive director at WIFF replacing the previous retiring executive director, Peter Coady. By 2016 WIFF had become the second largest film festival in North America.  

Two-thousand-eighteen was the year when things really started to pick up for WIFF. The previous year they sold 22,000 tickets but in 2018 the ticket sales increased by 10 per cent. That year they screened a total of 143 films at three different locations; the Capital Theatre, St. Clair College’s Chrysler Theatre and the Windsor Armouries. The organizers noticed the huge increase in interest for the festival from the community so the following year they extended the festival from their usual seven days to about a week and a half. 2019 shattered records with a grand total of 42,000 people-about twice the seating capacity of Madison Square Garden-attending the festival. 

One of the reasons why 2019 was so popular was because it was the 15th anniversary of the festival and they were going all out and unveiled WIFF alley. This alley off University Avenue has become a part of the city’s landscape with its beautiful graffiti style portraits and art of movie culture. Each year they host events there for WIFF. Unfortunately, WIFF 2020 and WIFF 2021 were both cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As an alternative, WIFF created an event called Under the Stars. Under the Stars was an outdoor screening event which allowed them to still screen some films despite the restriction of the time.

What contributed to their success? 

“There’s really something for everybody, whether you’re into comedy, action, drama, documentary, horror we’ve got that,” said Vincent Georgie, the executive director and chief programmer at WIFF.  

He believes this is one of the biggest contributors to why WIFF is so successful. The wide range of movies allows people who enjoy all sorts of different genres to enjoy what the festival has to offer. It makes it more accessible to a general audience then it was when it first started with the smaller indie films. It still hosts a variety of indie films each year for the people who are die hard film fans. 

Each year the festival has a set of movies which are shown at WIFF early. These films will be released in regular theatres, but you can catch them before anyone else if you go to these special screenings. For example, they are showing a movie called American Fiction which is not set to release until later this year. 

“By presenting so many films that are appearing well ahead of their theatrical release,” said Georgie. “Some films are from around the world, some films you aren’t going to catch elsewhere, I think it creates momentum and excitement around the event.” 

With WIFF being one of the biggest film festivals in North America they get attention from people all over the world.  

“On average, out of people who come to WIFF outside of the Windsor-Essex community you’re looking at about 30 per cent of our audience,” said Georgie. “Much more outside of Ontario across Canada.” 

He said WIFF attracts an audience from all the way down in the southern states of America and even some people from Europe. WIFF also makes sure to welcome in family friendly content to the festival so everyone can enjoy films. Georgie said they were expecting about 13,000 primary school students in the first week for children’s movies. 

“The age range is as young as seven years and I would say the oldest is 107,” said Georgie.  

WIFF and the Community 

“It’s cool to have something film related come out of Windsor,” said Aidoneus Daigle, a 19-year-old local film fan. “It’s important to have outlets like WIFF, I know a lot of people who are interested in the industry and interact with the organization.” 

Daigle has lived in Windsor his whole life and grew very fond of movies and the movie industry. He has only been able to do two Halloween screenings in the past but wants to experience more of what WIFF has to offer. As an average movie goer, he thinks it’s very important to have an event like WIFF to promote films that otherwise would not be seen by most people. He thinks movies are important for people to express themselves in a creative way. 

“Movies are a means to communicate stories in an engaging way,” said Daigle. “They’re a lovely way to reflect on the world.” 

As you can see WIFF is an important part of Windsor life especially for movie fan. 

Where are they today? 

This year WIFF had a total of 300 films and short films. Every year they award one film the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film. This year the movie Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. This year’s winner has been very successful with an 82 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.6 out of 10 rating on IMDB with a 97 per cent audience approval rating. This movie is one of the most successful films they have shown off this year. This year WIFF sold over 45, 000 tickets this year. If you want to find out more information on upcoming events held by WIFF go to their website www.windsorfilmfestival.com.